THE
HOLY SEE’S INTERVENTION AT THE 21ST SESSIONOF
THE CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN MINISTERS OF EDUCATION

The
theme of the present Session of the Conference of Ministers of Education –
“1ntercultural Education: managing diversity, strengthening democracy”
– has never been more relevant. The beginning of this new millennium is
characterised by the colossal occurrence of human mobility and emigration,
which makes our European societies, too, ever more multiethnic and
multicultural. Europe is asked to make a huge effort to welcome and integrate
these people, in a way that will reinforce and safeguard social cohesion, and
involve all of civil society, including families and religious communities.
There are many current experiences of successful co-operation in this area,
and there are present-day efforts to foster inter-cultural and inter-religious
dialogue that allow us to anticipate a vision of unity in diversity. This
gives us great hope for the future.

Culture
is, without doubt, man’s highest expression; it is a specific way of his
being and existing. Each culture is an attempt to reflect on the mystery of
the world and, in particular, on the mystery of man; it is a way of expressing
the transcendent dimension of life. The acceptance of one’s own culture, as
a structural element of one’s own personality, is an element of universal
experience. Without this foundation, a serene and balanced development of the
human person would be difficult. Therefore, it is important to know how to
appreciate the values of one’s own culture; but it is also necessary to
avoid transforming one’s sense of cultural belonging into a barricade
against others. A necessary antidote to this danger is the serene knowledge of
other cultures, which is not conditioned by negative prejudices. It can also
be said that when subjected to careful and rigorous analysis, the various
cultures often show that, beneath their more external variations, they have
common elements of meaning. Therefore, cultural diversities must be understood
from the basic viewpoint of the unity of the human race, in the light of which
we can grasp the deep meaning of those same cultural diversities.

In
the area of culture, education has a responsibility to teach an awareness of
one’s own roots, and to furnish points of reference that allow the
individual to place him or herself in the world. At the same time, education
must teach respect for other cultures, and encourage people to discover the
richness of the history and values of others. In this perspective, education
and the school are called to provide young people with those elements that are
indispensable for developing an inter-cultural vision. This means following a
formative and educational itinerary that leads from simple tolerance, through
acceptance of our multicultural reality, to the search for reciprocal
understanding. The inter-cultural perspective brings with it a real
paradigmatic shift on the pedagogical level, passing from more or less
successful models of integration and respect for diversity, to the search for
a living in a harmony of differences. That means learning to live as one and,
above all, to construct a common destiny. Our end-point is to arrive at
attitudes of co-operation, harmonious living and kindness, and to create a
path of civilisation that people can walk together. Needless to say, this is
not a simple easily attainable ideal. It demands, on the one hand, a search
for ethical foundations that characterise cultural experience, and, on the
other hand, an avoidance of losing one’s own identity and taking on generic
ideals, which could lead to fragmentation and become factors of instability.
Here, dialogue takes on a fundamental role. As the Pope has reminded us,
“dialogue between cultures […] emerges as an intrinsic demand of human
nature itself, as well as of culture. It is dialogue which protects the
distinctiveness of cultures as historical and creative expressions of the
underlying unity of the human family, and which sustains understanding and
communion between them. The notion of communion […] never implies a dull
uniformity or enforced homogenization or assimilation; rather, it expresses
the convergence of a multiform variety, and is therefore a sign of richness
and a promise of growth” (John Paul
II, Dialogue Between Cultures for a Civilization of Love and Peace:
Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace, 1 January 2001, n. 10).

Man
is at the centre of every culture; and it is human beings who, in their
dealings with each other in a way that is open to dialogue, construct a vital
synthesis of the various cultures. Here we see ever more clearly the
importance of the role of education, which has among its most important
objectives that of making man ever more human: man who can be more, not
just have more. To achieve this aim, man must learn not only to live
with others, but also to live for others.

We
can easily see that inter-cultural education is something in which many people
are involved and which takes place in various educational situations. Among
the latter, the school maintains a central place, since it offers such a
number of educational services that other locations find difficult to match.
These manifold educational services, which are regulated by the principle of
subsidiarity, give life to various synergies among the family (which is
primarily responsible for education); teachers and educators; young people
themselves; Non-Governmental Organisations; Churches and religious Communities;
and various persons who, on different levels, contribute to the formative
process. The Holy See expresses here its satisfaction in seeing, in the
preparatory documentation of the Conference, references to the family and its
educational role.

The
promotion of inter-cultural education requires educational policies that are
both courageous yet respectful, which promote an atmosphere of dialogue
and calm, and which do not forget the central objective of education –
the comprehensive development of the human personality, in all its dimensions
including the religious dimension, both on the level of knowledge and that of
values.

S.E.
Mons. Giuseppe Pittau,
S.I., Secretary of the Congregation for the Catholic Education, Chief of the
Delegation of the Holy See, 12-11-2003.